AU in Motion Plans Dancing Workshops

By BRYAN KOENIG
Comm 320 Contributing Writer
Washington-Later this semester, American University students can learn a new way to move with AU in Motion’s brand new dance workshops.

Entirely student run, AU in Motion holds semi-annual team based dance performances. Student choreographers audition at the start of each semester and those selected then audition students for the group dances that constitute the performances.

The brainchild of AU in Motion dancer and e-board member Alina Sabadish, a junior, the workshops will probably begin the last week of March or the first week of April. Sabadish hopes to have two to three workshops before the semester ends, each one teaching a different type of dance, such as Salsa, Modern, Ballet or Hip-Hop.

With a $5 suggested donation to AU in Motion, the workshops will function as a fundraiser and a way to let others participate in AU in Motion, drawing attention and new members to the group.

According to Sabadish, approximately 100 people try out every semester for the competitive dance teams for AU in Motion’s performances and only about half are accepted. The workshops offer a chance for those who didn’t make the cut and for those with a general interest in dance to participate in AU in Motion.

Each class will probably have a single AU in Motion dancer teaching it. Sabadish is also hoping to bring in guest choreographers and dance professors for master’s sessions. Ordinarily costing $50 to $100 or more, with a $5 suggested donation, the sessions are a “really good deal,” Sabadish said.

Sophomore Keshia-Lee Martin will teach a class in Hip-Hop. “There’s so many beats,” Martin said of Hip-Hop’s appeal, beats that can be choreographed to in many different ways. The difference means dancers are encouraged to improvise. “It never looks exactly the same.”

Finding out about the workshops upon walking into practice, Ph.D candidate Ramaris German found herself summarily drafted as a workshop teacher. Hoping to teach Salsa, as a member of a professional Salsa group in D.C., German thought it was “cool to introduce the AU community to some Latin flavor,” she said. “I don’t see a lot of Salsa at AU.”

Ramaris described Salsa as one of the few remaining ‘social dances,’ one that people still perform in clubs but that remains a formal way to connect with a partner to a specific set of rules.

Fully dedicated to her craft, German spent the entire interview flexing her legs in various dance poses, ‘working on pointing,’ as she explained it, ingraining the motions into her muscle memory.

The AU in Motion dancers will also be taking the workshops in addition to teaching them. Freshman Vicky Botvin is looking forward to classes in Ballet, Modern and Latin dancing. A dancer all her life, Botvin wanted to take classes in addition to continued practice because lessons are “how you get better,” she said.

“All the dancers that would be teaching them are outstanding dancers and you have something to learn from each and every one of them,” sophomore dancer Kerry Toole said. AU in Motion hopes that the end result of the workshops will be “people leaving more confident in themselves.”

The dancers were interviewed as they prepared for this semester’s performance. Sabadish, Martin, German, Botvin and Freshman Mollie Garber will be dancing with and under the choreography of Toole. They will be performing a dance from the Broadway and Hollywood musical Chicago, specifically Cell Block Tango, the dance where the female inmates describe why they are in prison.

“I think it’s going to be a really good piece, because it’s very, it’s very catchy and it’s very sexy…it’s almost dangerously risqué,” Toole said, describing the dance.

Sabadish came up with the idea for the workshops last semester but didn’t have time to implement it until now. Funds raised will primarily go to renting the Greenberg Theater for the dance show AU in Motion holds once every semester. At $4,866 per booking, AU in Motion can only afford to hold the dance in Greenberg once a year, utilizing the Black Box Theater in Katzen Arts Center for the other performance. While much cheaper, Sabadish prefers the Greenberg Theater, especially for its greater size. Sabadish is hoping the workshops will raise $400 to $500. “I’d be happy with anything really,” Sabadish said.

All groups will perform at the Black Box on March 19, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. Tickets will probably cost $7. Those interested in AU in Motion can look up their Facebook group, keep an eye out on Today@AU listings or send an email to auinmotion@gmail.com.